Keith Haring – Artistic and Social Criticisms of Policies on Apartheid, AIDS and Other Important Social Issues
“When I’m sad, I color the world . . . I color a lot.” – me. I said that.
Artworks by Keith Haring:
Why would I start a post about Keith Haring with my own artistic statement?
Because that’s what Keith Haring did, and I think that’s what he’d continue to do if he was alive today.
Haring had a habit of drawing on top of other people’s things:
(Click on the images if you wish to view them individually or larger.)
I think it would be incorrect to label Haring as primarily altruistic. He had selfish reasons inherent in his art. But his purpose was not simply conceit, narcissism, or self-promotion. When I was beginning to learn what all the fuss was about “Art,” Haring was at the height of his fame & notoriety. He was living a hated lifestyle, fighting for unpopular causes, and . . . dying from a woefully US Government-ignored and US culturally-ignored disease: AIDS.
Like other artists, Haring was ahead of his time, using “simple” graphic artistic statements to make complex social and political statements. He used public displays to fight for almost certainly unwinnable causes:
By at least 1988, Haring had learned he tested positive for the HIV Virus. He created all of the following artworks from 1988 to 1990:
This mural on the Church of Sant’Antonio in Pisa entitled “Tuttomondo,” was his last public project in 1990.
I think when Keith Haring was sad, he colored the world.
He colored a lot.
© All rights reserved by Keith Haring and the respective artists.
Most Recent Artworks Index of all the Artists’ Artworks my43things
When I was younger, I would not have seen this man’s genius. Now, however I can – and I really find his work remarkably strong and touching.
There was a childlike innocence in his work – as in his face – and an equal anger at what adults can accept and children cannot.
I did not know of this artist by name until today. I am so happy to have stumbled across him and his work, which I feel will only grow in importance over time.
Thanks for sharing on this website.
Haring’s work exemplifies freedom, innocence, love, sexuality and color. His genorosity was unending–it still goes on today, whether on a church wall in Pisa, Italy or in the hallways of Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. He worked fast and in detail to shape our vision of what art could and should be. He is gone, but he is still with us. That’s how alive his art really is.
Not knowing as a child when my brothers and sister would pop on the Christmas music…and the cover of the cassette tape was drawn/designed by Keith Haring. As a child I was drawn to the simplicity, yet it was so descriptive.
Now, as a mother and art volunteer for my son’s school, I taught the classroom a little about K. Haring and they drew similiar pieces of art we are displaying tonight at the school’s annual art show. Amazing artist and nice website, thank you.
“his art exemplifies freedom,sexuality et caetera”-someone had written in enthusiastic ignorance. His crude colored drawings do not do these marvelous things at all. Art is incredibly difficult to make and his quick pictomania is at the opposite end of it. His success was made of joyous chutzpah for which he had a great gift and a deserving audience.
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OneMoreOption: I appreciate your comment, but as I rarely do, I’m going to disagree with the confines you place on valuing his art, and art in general. His artworks stand on their own, apart from his personal chutzpah. I’d have to agree more with the person who suggested they do exemplify freedom, sexuality, and more.
I lived in NYC during the 1980s, and was part of the West Village scene. And I remember Keith before he became famous.
Once, Keith and I went to an opening at Leo Castelli’s gallery. Instead of oohing and ahhing at Robert Rauschenbergs and Jasper Johns hanging on the walls, I remember Keith being fascinated — almost obsessed — with Mary Boone’s shoes.
(Her shoes were ridiculous and sort of neo-dada in their own right!)
Keith was a lot of fun, actually very funny and very loveable. He was the “radiant child” depicted in so many of his drawings.
He died in February, 1990. But I still think of him a lot, like maybe he’s a guardian angel who floats in and out of my life.
I hope he’s waiting for me on the other side.
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OneMoreOption: Lovely. Thank you so much for sharing.
I first saw his art work when i was 15. I think he was a man with something to say, and the way he did it will be aound for my child, and i hope is statement is heard around the world. LOL
i love his use of bright radiant colors as opposed to the dull shades of grey in his heart. thats what a true artist does- pain joy for his viewers!
keith haring is very inspiring to me, since my art is somehow similar. he uses the thick black outlines to emphasize a point, i work similarly. hes one of my favorite artists.
Keith Haring was a magnificent artist who actually was born and raised in my hometown, and his uncle was one of my teachers in high school, but I find some of his works so awesome. He makes me feel like being from such a small town that we are from that you can in fact do anything you want to if you put your mind to it.
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muito legal
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Loosely translated from Portuguese: very cool.
Haring’s old Buick Regal – painted TOTALLY in colorful grafitti along with a face with mysterious eyes – greeted me in Seward Johnson’s Grounds for Sculpture during the summer of 2010. Inside of the gallery I listened to a video tape of Keith Haring and Andy Warhol cooly promoting Absolute Vodka and their unique pop Artforms. The exhibit drove me to recall the late 1980′s when the Aids quilt cushioned the stone floor of the Castle in Boston’s Park Square and when that insidious demon called AIDS stalked victims throughout the world. Haring’s artwork helped us to understand that there are NO VICTIMS there are only PEOPLE with AIDS. Haring was and is “a gift unto the world for whomever will accept it”. Peace!
Keith Haring is one of my fave artists ever. So happy he´d ever colour the world. It brings some happiness into my own world.